Because I think this is important to realize

Over on another blog there was a discussion over a comparison between how the treatment of black characters in comics has changed versus how the treatment of women has changed. The exchange got heated, the entire post was taken down and the cache only has the one comment now so I don't have the conversation on record.

Anyway, the blogger has put up a clarification, and chose two comments to answer. I had to say something, again, and I thought I'd put my comment up here for everyone's future reference:

Willow's pretty clearly upset because the problem was so much worse with African-American characters, and there are still unbelievable problems with African-American characters in all forms of media, and your comparison is sweeping that under the rug in favor of supporting your own personal agenda, which is examining gender discrimination. You are putting down her concerns to prop up yours. That is a problem.

Meanwhile, Betty was basically telling you to avoid this comparison, its useless and all it does is set people against each other. With this clarification attempt, you persist with the comparison. Why?

Next time you want to say that gay people have it better in comics than non-white people, or non-white people have it better than women, or women have it better than gay people, just stop. Its not adding anything worthwhile to the conversation, its taking away from the conversation. Its also arrogant as all-hell. You can only speak for yourself, who are you to tell someone else how to prioritize their troubles? What they should be more offended at? Even if you are a lesbian and a registered member of the Kiowa tribe, who are you to declare that "we've come far with race, but moved nowhere on gender" when talking to a Hawaiian woman who is grateful to be alive in this time period but can't manage to get away from the casual racism that invades her life?

Its all wrong, and there's more than enough of it for all of us to worry about anyway.

And stop wasting energy arguing about where everyone should direct their energy. I'm all for absurdity in an entertainment setting, but that's getting old on the level of people commenting on blogs about how blogging is a waste of time.

Blog Positivity Day

(Yes, seriously, a positive post! On this blog! Take that, Sims!)

By now you all know I'm more into "posts of passion" than premeditated theme days, so I normally don't participate in stuff like this. Still, I have a very happy start to this week and I figured I'd share it.

I expressed my usual enthusiastic adoration for Pat Gleason and got this comment yesterday:

thought Id clear it up
that is Katma Tui
actually Dave asked for a shot of it on the first panel where we see natu being introduced, but it was so far back I never got to do a nice close up, so i thought it would have a good impact there in that panel.
oh..and I love you too.

You have to love a fandom where most of the professionals are so down-to-Earth and part of the community that they'll just show up on your blog and comment.

Submissions Call for Carnival of Feminist SF/F Fans

Where: True Confessions of an Hourly Bookseller
When: August 16th
Deadline for Submissions: August 13th
Contact: QMickle[at]gmail[dot]com or submission form

Notice: Accepting Volunteers to Host the 17th Carnival. Email Ragnellthefoul[at]hotmail[dot]com if interested.

Final Crisis

Okay, by now we should all know what crazy wonderful writer has been assigned to DC's Final Crisis crossover, its time to place your bets.

So, given the reign of the entire DC universe for one crossover, what is Grant Morrison most likely to do with them?

This person thinks they're clever...

...by commenting on a year and a half-old post:

At the risk of sounding somewhat curt, if you don't like the state of comic writing then, become a comic writer and begin to change it.

Yes, it's annoying that comic writing isn't more mature, but the only way to change it is if people with more mature sensibilities get in there and get to work.

Normally I ignore this stuff, but I had to give an answer to that one:

Baleful darling, its not that you sound curt -- its that you sound idiotic.

Your comment runs on a few assumptions: a) That I'm not trying just that, b) that my current lifestyle supports such a venture, c) that I'm talented/skilled enough at comic book writing to do so, d) that these problems are not editorially driven, and e) that it is just that easy to break into the comics industry and be handed the reigns of the most popular superheroes in comicdom.

To answer your assumptions: (a) I am but (b) it really doesn't and (c) I might be but (d) probably not enough so to override the editor and (e) it sure as hell isn't.

That's not even getting into the absurd idea that a paying customer should answer shoddy work not by complaining but by trying to do it better themselves. Try that principle on your car, see how far you go.

I'm getting really sick of people trotting out that answer like I haven't heard it fifty billion times already. Even if it wasn't so common, its certainly not insightful enough to be worth making on a 1 year and 7 month-old conversation.

Wonder Woman #11

I can't bring myself to read it. Its just sitting there on the pile.

Anybody have any thoughts on it that might make me want to read it?

Am I interpreting Gleason's art right?

In Green Lantern Corps #14, is that really a statue of Katma Tui on Korugar? I'm getting from the context that they were praising Soranik, but that looks like Katma's costume and hair in the statue.


Either way, nice panel composition. I love Pat Gleason so much and never want him to leave this book.

(Okay, I admit it, I just posted this to gloat that my favorite dead female character has a memorial now. But I do love Pat Gleason and this panel.)

Apparently...

Power Girl is too masculine for some readers.

The Nine

From Digital Femme:

"Can you imagine them doing this to black people?"

Oh God, I wish I could stop hearing those words. No matter what slight is being discussed, whether superficial or serious, the person discussing it never seems to be satisfied until he or she can utter that phrase.

Obviously I must be living in some alternate reality, because everyone else seems to be living in a place where black people are treated with the utmost dignity and respect while every other group from redheads to Christians are horribly discriminated against.

In other news...

I'd like to say that I am publicly annoyed at my sister, because this podcast was posted on July 12th and she didn't tell me.

Not only is it exactly the sort of stuff I link, but my own sister (Kimberly) is talking for most of the podcast and she didn't tell me.

Also, she has to be wrong about when she started reading, because she is the one who gave me my first comic and that was Generation X #1, which pre-dates Age of Apocalypse.

Strongly recommended reading.

I suggest everyone read this one, and take her challenge up.

Lazy Posting

Just thought I'd let you know I picked the proper name:

Which Lady of Camelot Are You?

You are Ragnell - Enchanted Beast/Unearthly Beauty:
People are often deceived by first glance, thinking you to be mean or brash. However when they know you they find out how beautiful, smart and sincere you are. Your heart is filled with pity for others, but you often remain with self doubt of yourself because of people's initial reactions.

Quizilla| Join| Make A Quiz |Grab Code

Hmm...

I finished the Last Book of Potter a couple hours ago, and I've been mulling over either gushing or ranting (I loved 99% of the book, but one little bit irritated me and another little thing makes me angrier the more I think about it) but I'm going to spare you my venting until its safe to spoil.

How long should I wait?

Friday Night Fights: Round 5!

For Bahlactus.

Thinking Blogger Meme

Yes, I know I've been tapped twice for the "Thinking Blogger" awards (and at least once for that 8 things meme). I'm not oblivious to memes, I'm just a procrastinator.

Here's the rules as relayed to me:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote. (Yeah, I'm not going to bother with that.)

I'm terrible about getting into the blogging community lately. Between my feedreader and livejournal, I read roughly 800 blogs. They don't all update at once, they aren't all good, and I tend to skim past a lot of wonderful stuff. I have trouble keeping track of where I commented, and sometimes I don't comment or link what I intend to because I don't like to just link with no commentary on this blog. Unless I'm worked up by joy or rage at the moment, I don't have the motivation to write coherently. (As a result, my to-link list for this blog is too long right now.) That's why When Fangirls Attack has no commentary. Too much volume for commentary.

Out of the over 800 blogs I normally read, who makes me think?

Ultimately, everyone. For different reasons and at different times. Not always for the reasons they want to, not always in the ways they want to, I keep reading those blogs and adding more because there's just such a wonderful variety of human experience and opinion on the web, and honestly what else am I going to do after work while Oklahoma sleeps and I lurk in my subterranean cavern? ( As my first profile said, my social life was no match for the Night Shift. Oklahoma City's loss is the Internet's gain, for good or ill.) In the end, though, I tend to skim through most of the blogs as I search for linkable content.

However, I've found some blogs that I try never to skim and I always read through because they regularly have quality commentary. When busy, I tend to save the posts then go back to reread them afterwards (I'm usually a bit behind so I rarely comment unless Green Lantern is mentioned). So, from my Must-Read List, here's five of the people who regularly make me think. I'm going to try and go with people who I haven't seen tagged yet but the past two or three monmths have been a bit crazy so I might fail in that regard.

1. Planet Karen -- Yes, that one is a webcomic. More specifically, it is a daily biographical comic on the internet, or a graphic weblog, so I say it counts.

2. 4th Letter -- Funny story about this one. I only found it after getting into an argument with David Brothers about Storm. Repeated disagreements, actually. We will probably never ever see eye to eye about that one but I'm a regular reader of his now and for good reason.

3. Days in a Wannabe Punk's Life -- I've been reading Megha since I found her through the mainstream Carnival of Feminists. She's smart, she's funny, she's from another side of the world from me, and I can still read her thoughts which is one of the reasons I love the internet.

4. Seeking Avalon -- I'm not sure what to say about Willow that's not obvious. If you are not already reading this blog, I'd advise you to watch it. She has some wonderful insights (for a Batman fan).

5. Center of Gravitas -- I am addicted to GayProf. He almost never blogs comics yet I am compelled to read every post the entire way through whether its on politics, Texas life, or whatever else he finds worth blogging about. Always worthwhile.

That's five. That's not all of my Must-Read List, but that's five and I am especially lazy when it comes to memes and praise.

What Teachers Make

I'm so obsessed, I thought of Guy Gardner for this one.



(Via)

Why does this piss me off so much?

I've been reading through the 1500 blog posts I missed over the weekend, and I just found the umpteenth post whining about Kyle.

I don't know why this pisses me off so much. Maybe because its a story idea that I like, and I'd been hoping for earlier in Johns run. Its a story I've been wanting to see, because this is Kyle's biggest fear. This is the one of those things that has haunted since the beginning of his career, the idea that he might end up like Hal did. Its something the character needs to go through, and to be honest I don't like the Uber-Kyle a lot of fans are attached to. Ion works temporarily, but really I prefer the character with his ring.

I also prefer the character as the lesser powered person in a situation. The best Kyle stories are Kyle as the underdog. Kyle started out facing fully-Parallaxed Hal. He had to face him his first week with absolutely no help. He came up with this unbelievably crazy idea of destroying the planet both characters were standing on, and Parallax is so thrown he lets Kyle through the mass purging of the entire Green Lantern mythos.

A little while later, Ganthet tries to fire him, and Parallax shows up again, scares off Ganthet, beats the shit out of the JLA, beat the shit out of Kyle and takes his ring. Kyle pops back up, powerless, armed by only a lead pipe and knocks Parallax over the head. There's some talking between Hal, Kyle and Ganthet. Hal decides that beating up Kyle is like the Hulk wearing cleats to step on a kitten and the situation defuses. (This one actually works really well with the fearbug retcon, because you can interpret it was Hal coming back to control for a short time.)

In JLA he had to overcome his awe and nervousness save the universe multiple times. Morrison's DC One Million crossover forced Kyle to hold together an exploding sun. He needed a pep talk from batman first.

In Rebirth, he's at death's doorstep and he keeps moving forward because he has to.

I like Kyle.

No, I love Kyle. He's one of my absolute favorite characters in the DC stable.

But I thought Ion was killing him. Both times. My Kyle is the toughest guy in the universe, but not nearly the most powerful. My Kyle is loaded with self-doubt, hesitation, and fear. My Kyle is often outgunned, outmatched, and overpowered by the energy.

My Kyle pushes past that to triumph anyway.

I am enjoying the hell out of this story, because Sinestro Corps was the beginning of a story about My Kyle. He was out of his element, he was alone, he was outnumbered, he was overpowered, and he was at the end of his rope. He faltered, just enough, to get into real trouble from there.

This happened in the first issue. This always happens to Kyle. The best stories are when he gets through that and wins in the end.

I can understand being pissed when this crossover is over and done with, if Kyle is a passive little victim who needs to be saved completely by Hal. But seriously, we're in the opening shots here and right now it fits the pattern of a really good Kyle Rayner story perfectly.

I don't see how these so-called devoted Kyle fans aren't seeing that. That's why I did the writer poll, because while Johns is a very intense writer, this isn't a pattern that only he uses. Marz and Morrison wrote this pattern. They set up the Kyle fears, falters, then comes back to win pattern. Kelly continued it. Honestly, the only writer who had his hands on the character for a significant amount of time but didn't do that was Judd Winick, and I believe that's why I despise his run so much. That wasn't My Kyle. I figured the people who hated the crossover must've joined during his run.

Johns, though he doesn't use him often, writes Kyle the way I know and love him. Its Johns style, so its melodramatic and the pacing's off. the jokes change from writer to writer, sure. but personality-wise and story-role-wise this is My Kyle. This is the Green Lantern I started with. This is the Green Lantern who brought me into Green Lantern. This story fits the pattern, and it promises to put an end to the Ion nonsense.

I'm really enjoying this story, and I'd love to be able to enjoy it without people shitting on it for particularly stupid complaints. That's why I'm so irritated with them. I've not been going through Kyle-withdrawal for the past two months. I've been going through Kyle withdrawal for a full year, dammit, and I've finally gotten this character back after all that time and I want to enjoy it dammit.

Now, someone's about to come here and say I'm trying to censor Kyle complaints or tell you to stop complaining about Kyle. No, I'm not. You are perfectly free to think that Kyle has been ruined and this is all some juvenile Hal-fan revenge for Emerald Twilight.

I, however, am perfectly free to say you're a fucking idiot who obviously has never read a Kyle Rayner story in your life (Winick's run doesn't count, that wasn't Kyle. Though, as Kalinara pointed out once, it was sadly the most in-character Winick's ever written a DC property), or that you are whiny, panicky, annoying, and shitting on a perfectly good storyline and a writer that I happen to like.

And I will, whether you're normally an idiot or just a panicky Kyle fan who is otherwise sensible but is too damned spooked over Bart's death to see things my way. Because I have an extra-stressful real life right now, I've been relaxing by reading and discussing this storyline because I'm really enjoying this storyline, and complaints along the lines of "They're going to KILL Kyle" are really fucking annoying me more than they normally would.

It would be one thing if the complaint was over art or pacing (Johns-pacing is really freaking weird) or dialogue or mood, but this gloom and doom shit isn't cutting it as a justifiable concern.

I will also use this blog to alienate and deride anyone who shits on my good mood whenever I feel the need to, because that's what an internet blog is for anyway.

Solicits: Hal, Jaime, Diana, and... Mitch?

Full DC solicits up.

I already told you about the Justice League of America #14 cover, and the Countdown tie-ins.

The covers to Green Lantern #24 and Green Lantern Corps #17 look good, but I don't trust the solicits enough to try and derive any clues from them. Suffice it to say, I'm going to be reading and hanging on every panel of both books and the two Sinestro Corps tie-in specials.

Blue Beetle's getting in on the fun, too:

BLUE BEETLE #20
Written by John Rogers
Art and cover by Rafael Albuquerque
A “Sinestro Corps War” tie-in! The Lanterns’ war hits home as a yellow ring appears in El Paso. But is it being offered to the Scarab or to Jaime Reyes? And whose will is stronger?
On sale October 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The cover to the Flash #233 has the kids in cute costumes.

Aside from that, this looks written with me in mind:

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #7
Written by Mark Waid
Art by George Pérez & Bob Wiacek
Cover by Pérez
Wonder Woman and Power Girl fight side-by-side against a foe who may be more powerful than both of them combined!
On sale October 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

And, of course, the one to wait for:

WONDER WOMAN #13
Written by Gail Simone
Art and cover by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson
An electrifying new era begins for the world’s greatest superheroine! Gail Simone (BIRDS OF PREY, SECRET SIX) joins the phenomenal art team of Terry and Rachel Dodson for what promises to be one of the most exciting Wonder Woman stories ever!
What exactly is the Circle, and what deadly secret do they hold about Diana’s birth? What familiar face from Wonder Woman’s past returns with a mission to spy on Special Agent Diana Prince? Why is the Department of Metahuman Affairs on a collision course with the wounded remnants of the Society of Super-Villains? All this plus monkey assassins in a story that spans the globe and shakes Diana to her core!
On sale October 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The other thing to catch my eye was this (emphasis mine):

DC INFINITE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1
WRITTEN and illustrated by various
Cover by Gene Ha
Don’t miss this collection of 13 stories of tricks and treats by some of comics’ top creators, including writers Steve Niles, Mark Waid, Steve Seagal, Dan DiDio, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Peter Johnson (TV’s Supernatural), David Arquette (Scream), Cliff Dorfman (Entourage) and many more with art by Ian Churchill, Dean Ormston, Dustin Nguyen , Bernard Chang and others! The inmates of Arkham horrify each other with terrifying tales involving Superman and zombies, Batman and vampires, Robin and werewolves, Aquaman and witches, Flash and the dead, and more! Plus, the return of Resurrection Man!
On sale October 31 • 80 pg, FC, $5.99 US

I think we can take it as a given that they're digging him up so they can kill him again.

15th Carnival of Feminist SciFi and Fantasy Fans Posted

The 15th Carnival (yes, it is very very late) is finally posted at Feminist SF The Blog!

I'm open for a 16th host. Email me.

(Also: Willow's got the First POC in ScFi/Fantasy Carnival Up. She needs hosts too.)

October Solicits

The full solicits aren't up until Monday, but they have some early DC ones up.

This probably spoils the end of the current GL crossover, but check out the cover to Countdown for a look at Kyle's new look. The design is nice, and I like it. Very close to traditional, but still Kyle and the hair has a bit of length that does away with the crewcut that scared me from that sketch last month. (Yes, that crewcut annoyed me more than anything in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps.) Can't wait for an artist I really like to draw it.

Also, Kalinara has notes on the JLA cover and which Lantern is on it. I'll be doing my I Told You So dance in the meantime.

Oh, and if anyone would like to see an entertaining and rage-inducing conversation on race as Hal-only fans react to the JLA cover and cry because now their favorite's only dominating one book, check out the discussion thread on Newsarama. There's vague whining, then it gets cooking around Page 4 or 5 when someone mentions reverse discrimination.

The Newsarama forum debates the issue of racism with all of the class and dignity we've come to expect from a superhero fan-site message board.

Hal-fans take this opportunity to express the opinion John is a character with no personality other than being black while John-fans point out he has a rich and detailed history that stupid people like to ignore because they don't know enough about Green Lantern, but Hal-fans still insist that he's being thrown in for race. Someone who can't count thinks that half of the team is black now, someone says a third and members of the silent majority sensibly realize that they don't know how many people are on the finalized roster yet. There's the "editorially mandated diversity so it will suck" vs. "McDuffie loves John so its no surprise" argument, the theoretically intelligent point that there's more to diversity than adding a black character is used to support an extremely stupid argument, the required Didio-trashing and a "Did you know Kyle's Hispanic?" "WTF? Seriously?" tangent thrown in for variety.

Somewhere along the way someone points out that DC spoiled the ending to Sinestro Corps, but the "JLA is Kyle's book, dammit!" fans don't show up until Page 8.

Also on page 8, a reader loses his faith in the writer's word and someone finally brings up that there might be two Lanterns on the team or that Hal might have very good in-story reasons for dropping out.

On Page 9 there is a valiant effort at stopping the fight through logic.

My absolute favorite is the this post:

There are people of color in this country. They deserve super-heroes. You are a big doodee head.

See, being a Green Lantern fan is not all the Hal vs. Kyle war. Sometimes we fight about John too.

And as long as I'm going off on the Dark is Rising

Bellatrys sums up the changes quite nicely:

Will in the books is unselfish, concerned for his family's well-being ahead of his own, a serious and recollected kid who looks out for others. In the movie, at least from the trailer footage, he's a thoughtless brat who only sees in his newfound powers a chance to show off cool superpowers and give nothing in return, whining worse than Young!Luke to Ben Kenobi about having to go save the world. And Luke had more responsibilities, and fewer allies and resources, at the time!

Oh, and Soyo found the trailer:


What book did they get this from?

More Dark is Rising Angst

Its worse than even I had heard. This post at the livejournal community "A Blog of Authors" breaks it down in a handy chart. (Hattip Bellatrys) It does not look good.

I could handle the nationality and the plot changes, even removing my beloved Arthurian elements, but they are changing Will.

Will discovers his powers on his thirteenth birthday, because John Hodge says Will's extra years make him more "plausibly capable."

One of the things about Will was he always seemed like an old 11. He was like a thousand-year-old man wrapped up in a little boy's body. Why would they need to add two years to him if seeming older than his age is still a characterization point?

Will is assertive, challenging his older brother head-on, and doing many other things — as John Hodge says often — "head-on." I guess it's a pro to his being American, as Americans have a reputation for being more proactive than passive.

Yay for nationalistic stereotyping! Will he do rope tricks too? All the British kids'll be tea-drinking and uptight, right?

He is told of his powers, refuses to believe anyone when he hears of them, then goes home and apparently gives his brothers what-for.

Why? Would he think his brothers put the guy up to it?

At thirteen, Will gets disgusted at not being able to tell anyone. He blows up a car and acts out in some other ways. According to John Hodge, Miss Greythorne tells Merriman, "He's just expressing himself."

Remember the scene where he got especially curious and went out to the woods and set a stick on fire with his powers? Then realized what a humongously stupid thing he'd done?

Yeah, I bet that's gone. That way they get to blow up cars and shit whenever Will gets angry, because he doesn't have that natural "Old One" attitude, he's a spoiled brat with anger management issues who wants attention and glory! Yeah, way to keep with the unique spirit of the hero of these books there.

So, the thoughtful, introverted youngest member of the Old Ones? Our gentle little hero who was loaded with ancient power despite all appearances to the contrary? The guy who was responsible and thoughtful and didn't waste his power in showy displays? Gone! Replaced by a Harry Potter clone!

Oh, but they changed all the surface stuff that would make people mistake him for Harry, but they went ahead and took Will's unique personality and exchanged it for the more popular boy's so they could clone Harry Potter but not be accused of cloning Harry Fucking Potter.

Fuckers.

You know, I hate to be one of those fans who gets mad whenever they change any little thing about a book I loved, but seriously, this sounds like mass-produced shit that's trying to capitalized on the Potter popularity. They're killing this book, dammit. Killing it (And yes, you can quote that for your fan entitlement rants, thank you very much.)

Seriously, though, the Jack Black as Green Lantern rumor (it surfaces every few months) didn't induce nearly as much disgust as that chart does.

Its just as well, they probably wouldn't have gotten a good actor for Bran in the sequels, and Bran is the character I'm really a fan of in this one.

When this movie comes out I'm spending my ticket money on a bottle of whiskey and sitting home to reread the novels.

I advise you to do the same.

Friday Night Fights

At the behest of Bahlactus:

GWOG

Girl-wonder.org started a blog. Not a column-style one like their normal stuff, but one with links and short posts.

Let's play the reading comprehension game.

Could you guys do me a favor and comment paraphrasing this paragraph (from this post)?

Criticism is my small way of preventing future bad stories, because I know some of you out there are aspiring writers. Slowly but surely, we can fix some of this crap, one writer at a time. At the very least, we can let off some steam in the meantime.

I'm beginning to think its meaning may not have been as clear as I intended.

More Being Mean to Kyle-Fans

I'm so absentminded sometimes. I jotted down a note about a comment that said "I'm just not sure that Kyle won't be used to fuel angst for John, Hal, and Guy when they're forced to kill him during this" as one of the funniest and silliest things ever said by a Green Lantern fan, but I didn't write down where I saw it. It may have been on Geoff Johns' board.

Either way, it was really funny because there was a long ten year period where Hal and John were pretty much there to fuel angst for Kyle, and it was really silly in light of the premise of Rebirth (Parallax bonded to Jordan's soul so it kept control beyond that grave and tried to twist the Spectre's power), which makes it unimaginable that Hal Jordan would let anyone die with that thing attached to his soul, especially Kyle.

I was planning on digging it up to settle an argument, but now I can't find it. And I checked my comment section pretty thoroughly.

Rats.

Oh well, Green Lantern #21 is out today and I'm sure there will be a lot of complaining about it and I can find something else.

As much as I'm ranting, though, I am really starting to enjoy the fuss over this one and if anyone sees any really funny complaints let me know.

Wherein I Horrify Toy Collectors

Well, I was out earlier today searching the stores for that elusive blue motorcycle Dorian described in my Arcee post. I checked every Target in town (I even asked to make sure I got them all) but no on had a motorcycle Transformer. I finally found it overpriced on Amazon.

However, it still has a problem. This toy is a blue motorcycle. Arcee is a pink convertible and dammit, I want a pink car! To that end, I've decided to solve this problem the same way I solved my "No Female Green Lantern Toys" problem.

Well, not exactly. Tearing the wings off of a cheap Tinker Bell doll and repainting her as a Green Lantern (results pictured here) isn't quite going to work this time.

(As an aside I'm rather proud of the results on that one. I had trouble getting her to stand, but that's a makeshift never-dry clay base so I can still change her pose whenever I feel like it. I just wish I could get a decent picture that shows the little GL symbol clearly.)

Now, I know that people buy kits and repaint them and rebuild them and put a lot of effort into it. But I'm too cheap and lazy to get that in-depth. Painting is fun and messy, so I can justify doing that much. (Its also why I like Habitat for Humanity when it comes to volunteer work. They always need painters.) I'm going to need to pick out the right kind of modeling paint for the plastic Hasbro is using, something that won't eat plastic that'll probably need to be redone every few hundred shifts, but I am going to buy one of the car Transformer toys and paint it pink!

Right now some poor collector is shuddering in horror at the thought, but seriously, these toys are under 10 bucks right now and common as dirt.

Unfortunately, no one is a convertible (I mean, seriously, how obvious is that? A convertible Transformer!), but I have this one narrowed down to a few toys. I just need some help to decide which one.

1) Jazz. This one's my first thought because this toy is remarkably easy to find around here. I found a lot of them while searching for the motorcycle. The gray color is easy to paint over. He's also the cheapest, coming in at eight bucks at Target. The problem is his robot form is just a little too far from Arcee for me.

2) Bumblebee. The robot form is ideal and the car form is the next best thing to an actual convertible for Arcee's car form. However, this one's a bit more expensive, a bit harder to find, and the yellow plastic bits aren't going to paint as nicely as Jazz's gray. This one's also getting some poor reviews on Amazon.

3) Barricade. It has the advantage of being the one I would buy two of, because I like my Barricade figure too. Unfortunately, this iss a bad guy and his robot form carries that effect.

4) Starscream. Okay, this one is the most expensive so I probably wouldn't want to alter it. But isn't the idea of a pink jet just pure awesome? And I could always just buy two of this one.

[Poll Closed. Bumblebee beat out Starscream by one vote.]

Anyway, leave your questions, comments, advice, and "WHAT?! NO!!!! WOMAN WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!!" reactions below!

Attention Humanity!

I'm sure that Judd Winick is a really nice guy when you talk to him. I imagine Brad Meltzer is excellent company. I bet that Will Pfiefer did not intend to offend anyone with anything in Amazons Attack.

That does not change the fact that the comics suck and are often loaded with nasty symbolism and messages.

I love my mother, but she raised me on a diet of super-misogynistic fairy tales that were loaded with meaning and cultural tropes that remain with me and a few million other kids to this day.

I know there are critics out there who see writers with serious issues, but really we're looking at a society with serious issues here. They're in the art, they're buried deep in the culture, they've been influencing us since we were born. They surface at the absolute worst times and they need to be pointed out and faced or else we'll never fucking get past them, and we'll be forever doomed to this living hell of cliched, offensive entertainment that saturates our world.

From a less lofty perspective, sometimes nice guys just tell bad stories.

Criticism is my small way of preventing future bad stories, because I know some of you out there are aspiring writers. Slowly but surely, we can fix some of this crap, one writer at a time. At the very least, we can let off some steam in the meantime.

But before we can fix anything, we have to learn to accept Ragnell's First Law of Criticism:

Criticizing the story is not the same as criticizing the storyteller.

Quit popping up in my comments acting like I boiled someone's puppy because I pointed out something read really fucking wrong in their story.

It doesn't do anything to change my opinion. All it does is make me pissed off at you.

Since people have actually asked on this one...

I still maintain that Hippolyta has been portrayed as trigger-happy and impulsive since the Messner-Loebs run, and I still adore her for it. (I think Diana uncharacteristically in denial when she insisted her mother didn't act that way, because it contradicts at least 15 years of continuity.)

I also maintain that the Bana Migdall Amazons are unreasonably bloody, have always been violent and would do some pretty awful things during a war, including child-killing.

From the first issue, Amazons Attack could have developed naturally as a compelling drama where Diana has to play peacemaker in a cultural misunderstanding. The concept is sound. It probably would've worked well if written by Rucka, actually.

But the way its shaping up we'll have a Mind-Control/Manipulation excuse by September, and its not even an interesting way to use the plot. That's why I haven't blogged the last two issues of this one, its really not worth reading the crossover unless I need a quick jolt of energy from the rage at Piccoult's dreadful characterization.

Also, in the second issue, when the female pilot (you know, the woman who is an active participant in the war like men typically are allowed to be) is stabbed to death mercilessly but the matronly female tourist (the woman being a helpless bystander like women typically are allowed to be in these stories) is saved by Green Lantern? That's pretty much where Pfiefer lost me.

Bad symbolism. No biscuit.

In case you forgot, I hate everyone.

I used to watch Transformers every Saturday when I was a kid. I believe it was the "Second Generation" series, but to be honest I don't remember much of the series. I just really remember 4 characters. Optimus Prime (of course), Starscream (because he was a cool jet), Soundwave (we had the toy), and Arcee.

Arcee was the pink Transformer, and the only girl. I remember being vaguely disappointed she wasn't going to be in the movie, but had hopes she'd show in the sequel. Well, my sister and other sources soon informed me she tested badly so they replaced her with Ironhide. In fact, my sister (an irrational Arcee hater) and I were just arguing about it, and I said I'd find the interview or article that was the source of the rumor that she was dropped and find out exactly why, and then we could come back and argue about Arcee. (In the meantime, we went back to arguing about Jazz in the movie, an experience which felt like pounding my head against a brick wall probably would)

Anyway, I found it. I found the fucking interview, and I am more pissed off than ever.

IGN: Were Soundwave and Arcee the two characters you most would have liked to see in the film? Or who would you have liked to include that you couldn't?

Orci: Those two were kind of the main ones, but a few different Transformers came in at various points to serve the story, but the story dictated certain other things. But those are the two main Transformers. I would have liked to see Arcee, but the idea of a female Transformer needs its own explanation, and there just wasn't going to be enough time. It would have been like, "Oh, that's convenient. They're trying to appease women with a pink Transformer." So rather than having that happen, let it just be a straight shot and speak for itself right now.

What. The. Fuck.

Why is being a girl so fucking special? Why is it that every other fucking robot has a male fucking voice and no one questions why they have gender coding but the fucking second you bring in a female voice and god forbid you put it in a feminine color you have to suddenly explain why everyone has gender?

Oh, I know. We automatically assume everything is male. Male is the default. Male is neutral and being a girl is some sort of freakishness that can only be explained as thrown in there to try and appease the women!

It's not like the entire fucking movie was built to pander to the audience that watched the cartoon and would know who Arcee was anyway.

I hate Hollywood. I hate Fandom. And I hate our fucking stupid society that tells me that my gender is weird and needs to be explained away, because don't you know everything is already male and femininity only exists when there's babies to be made dammit.

They're fucking robots. What the fuck is the harm?! If they were so fucking worried it would have taken two fucking lines for the stupid kid to be surprised to hear a girl and Arcee to explain that they're robots, they don't have gender, she just used a female voice.

And I remember they never gave her a toy until I was a grownup for some reason. Can't imagine why. The whole fucking franchise was a fucking toy commercial, but we had to wait how long for then to paint a robot pink?

(And I still don't have my pink convertible Transformer. Its a little motorcycle now.)

Bastards.

ETA: Hey, didn't Ratchet have a British accent? What the fuck?! They really think they would have needed to explain a girl voice?! And the body? They made her a fucking motorcycle. Why would they need to explain the feminine shape?! Seriously. What. The. Fuck.

Shouldn't have said that

I regret making this comment.

I should have said:

Hey Val, did they show you one of my letters?!

I didn't think of it until after I posted, though, and now it would look bad if I deleted it.

Still, I think my qualifications as a rabid Lantern Fan-warrior might be going back on my profile, because we're getting our reputation back and I may as well make use of it.

Dark is Rising Movie News (Its not looking good.)

"...dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Television industry. TO it, by serving, living humbly with integrity in what is often a world driven by selfish ambition, power and money – transforming lives from within, and THROUGH it, by creating relevant and evocative content which promotes Godly principles of Truth married with Love."

(Yeah, that's going to work well with all the pagan imagery.)

"...screenwriter John Hodge told me they dropped all the Arthurian stuff from the film."

(Yeah, there goes the rest of the book.)

Friday Night Fights Round 3!

For the viewing pleasure of Bahlactus, a little old lady beats the crap out of Captain Comet:

Recommended Reading Before Work

More Stereotypes than Meets the Eye -- Okay, I'm a sucker for movies that involve explosions and aliens so I missed the vast majority of what she points out (Except for Jazz. I couldn't believe that one when I saw it). Nora (guest-blogging at ABW) has a much better rundown of the issues with Transformers than I would be able to offer.

Well, okay, I have a rant on the exclusion of Arcee in me, but that has to wait until I can find the interview and read the exact wording on why she was dropped.

Thank you, Judd Winick -- Kalinara lays out the most recent reasons why Judd Winick shouldn't be writing superheroes.

Seriously, I think Brad Meltzer could be saved with some pointers on the importance of action, but Winick seems to think his writing is relevant, trendy and revolutionary when its the same old sexist cliches dug up and used with an unhealthy mix of bad characterization.

WHAT?

Des this person actually think they know more about Green Lantern than me?

The concept of Star Sapphire is based on seduction.

Okay, a retcon is not the basis for a concept, its a revision of a concept and its as temporary as a sandcastle given the amount of nostalgia found in most comic book writers today. The basis for the concept is where it was created. That story is out in a Showcase collection. This one is accessible.

And honestly, I don't understand why I should find it embarrassing that I can write a full coherent essay on the nature of Star Sapphire in Green Lantern in five minutes, especially in response to someone who takes the time to read and troll essays about superhero comics.

And again with the "its only comic books" argument as if that makes it okay to put out offensive shit. Two things wrong there: a) being junk lit just means that when you pick the offensive bits out its a sign that the theme is that much more interesting (and in some cases harmful) because its so ingrained in society it surfaces even in the light stuff, and b) we're shelling out three bucks apiece for these things, dammit. A little consideration is not too much to ask even if they are just cheap thrills.

Well, to be fair, he was pretty whiny in Ion too.

Deep in the heart of Oklahoma, Ragnell the Foul stirs in her subterranean lair. She lumbers towards the ancient computer on her desk, turns it on, and goes to make her iced tea the old-fashioned way. When she returns, the computer has booted up, and the wonders of cyberspace await her. She logs on to check the news, and discovers to her delight an interview with Ron Marz about what he plans to do with one of her favorite characters. She reads eagerly, nodding in anticipation of September's comic books when she sees something distasteful. She frowns, rubs the dusty screen with a scaled forearm and squints at the monitor.

Yes, he did indeed just say that.

She sighs and reaches a clawed hand for her set of Wonder Woman stationary. She selects the blue paper with the red envelope, then picks up a green quill. The creature takes a moment to phrase her objection in the clearest yet least offensive manner possible, and then she writes.

Dear Mr. Marz,

I am writing because I found your quote about the nature of the Donna-Jason-Kyle love triangle in the upcoming The Search for Ray Palmer miniseries problematic. You stated:

One of the things we’re going to be doing in this book—is this sort of triangle—between Jason, Kyle, and Donna. Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner are not going get along. I think in a lot of ways Kyle is the good ex-boyfriend and Jason is the somewhat alluring bad boy—and the bad boy and the good ex-boyfriend never ever get along.

I believe your phrasing of this story idea presents a flawed and malecentric view of romantic relationships.

From the viewpoint of a man who has just seen what appeared to him to be a perfect relationship dissolve, the next man may seem to be of such a different personality that the two men are destined to clash even without a woman in the picture. To that end, such a different personality may seem like a "bad boy" to the discarded gentleman. And even though the supposed "bad boy" is not a bad guy at all, the differences combine with the circumstances to create the illusion that a low-down scoundrel (a devil perhaps) has stolen the lady in question (or that the lady in question is a duplicitous, fickle woman who just doesn't appreciate such a nice guy). Indeed, when this sort of thing happens continuously it may seem as though women in general are attracted not only to this particular sort of scoundrel, but to bad men in general.

And surely a good many of the men who have found themselves on the unfortunate end of this sort of event use the written word as a way of working out their tensions. Since romance is one of the oldest sorts of stories, and we have a few centures of ignoring female voices in favor of male voices at our literary backsides, this has probably happened quite a bit with few counterexamples. This would naturally lead to the side of the story belonging to the "Good Guy" (the "Nice Guy") being overrepresented in romantic stories to the point it becomes a cliche, the sort of thing everyone knows and everybody jokes about. And because everybody knows it, and jokes about it, they are quicker to believe it in their own lives when they see a seemingly perfect romance dissolve.

But honestly, if you look at the situation from the point of view of the woman, and not the "Good Guy," you will see that there is usually a very good reason to look for a completely different personality in the next man. More often than not, the apparently "Good ex-boyfriend" was needy, whiny, irresponsible, childish, or held a host of other character flaws that are not readily apparent in the new "bad boy." The "bad boy" has his flaws, but they are rarely the same flaws the woman was rejecting and in my experience the "Bad boy" usually has strengths in the very areas where the "nice guy" was found lacking.

So you can see how your setup for the Jason-Donna-Kyle love triangle perpetuates an already cliched and unfair stereotype that just adds to the pile of cultural crap that allows so-called "nice guys" to avoid taking responsibility for their own flaws, instead blaming women who won't put up with those flaws for being duplicitous and fickle, or blaming other men for "stealing" their girlfriends.

I could understand it perfectly if Donna was ignoring Kyle for Jason because he had been whiny, childish, temperamental, needy, irresponsible, or annoying, but he hasn't exhibited those character traits since your run on Green Lantern ended several years--

At this point, she pauses and twitches her prehensile tail. After a few moments of careful thought, she puts down her quill and places the unfinished letter aside. She replaces it with fresh paper, and starts to write once more.

Dear Mr. Marz,

I will be picking up The Search for Ray Palmer. The love triangle you described in your interview sounds very true to life, and I look forward to reading about it.

Sincerely,
Ragnell the Foul
Four Miles Beneath Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Recommended Reading

Kalinara's on a roll.

(I dedicate that recommendation to the manager who turned around and yelled at me to smile yesterday. I've yet to see anyone do that to a male technician, but damned if I don't get told that at work three times a week.)

Green Lantern Fans, Help Me Test a Theory.

Okay, I'm watching the reactions to The Sinestro Corps and I'm wondering which version of Kyle everyone preferred, and how that coincides with whether or not they were happy with the special.

To that end, I have created a quick and simple poll. I decided on limiting the writers to just Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Judd Winick, and Ron Marz because all four of them wrote a fairly distinctive version of Kyle and put him in distinctive types of stories. (Plus, if I offered every writer who handled him for just one issue, it would get tedious. I picked the three writers who had him longest and the writer of the miniseries in question.)

Anyway, choose which writer of the four listed wrote the best Kyle Rayner, and whether or not you liked Kyle's part in Sinestro Corps.

(Poll Results)

Please vote, and feel free to leave conclusions in the comments. More on this one later.

Recommended Reading

I fully intended to rant here about the attitude towards superheroes and crying I found in this spoilery Sinestro Corps commentary. (I bookmarked it, but didn't say anything on the board because its page 22 of a 25 page post.)

But Kalinara beat me to it.

She put it better anyway.

Thoughts?

Adam Hughes did the cover for the San Diego Comicon Keepsake book. We had a newsgroup discussion and I'd like to get everyone's first thoughts on this one.

Quick Note

I've seen three posts today that suggest DC characters have been replaced by Skrulls.

Wrong universe. DC characters get replaced by Manhunter robots, which are currently active and being led by an old Superman baddie. Adjust your theories accordingly.

Friday Night Fights: Hal vs. Hal

Because Bahlactus demanded it:

An Open Letter to Geoff Johns From Your Average Green Lantern Fan

Dear Sir,

I've been a Green Lantern fan, a "Fantern" to use the embarassing vernacular, since I was a teenager. For the past few years, with few exceptions, Green Lantern Fandom has been calm and peaceful by comparison to the 90s. Bringing back Hal while keeping Kyle active was a beautiful idea that made majority of fans I interacted with happy. Yes, there were problems with lateness and people worrying about their favorites and John not being used but on the whole the majority of the Fandom put aside their differences, their personal insults, their undying character loyalty and geeked out in reasonable harmony for several years.

Today I have been checking the message boards, the blogs, and the livejournal communities. There is obsequious praise for yesterday's Sinestro Corps special, as well as conspiracy theories, personal attacks, ancient grudges, whining, complaining, and creator-bashing creeping into the conversation as anxiety sets in. Increasingly, criticism of the book is met with dismissal and personal insults by the fans who enjoyed it. While it is still quite tame in comparison to how things erupted in the 90s, I perceive that a second Hal-Kyle Fan War is inevitable and the fandom risks returning to the dark ages of insanity and obsessiveness.

So far, the only drawback I can see to that is that last week I wanted to post a rant for Friday Night Fights which pointed out that all of the Green Lanterns were alive, well, and active, show a picture of Green Lantern punching out the Flash and end with "Eat it, Flash-fans!" I could not find a picture that captured the sentiment and so I put it off a week. Too late now.

Other than that, though, this is good. It was really getting boring around here. Everyone but the John fans were so fucking happy (and the John fans were generally fucking quiet) that it was like being in the Twilight Zone. Things were getting so sickeningly good-willed that I was afraid to enter a Green Lantern fansite for fear of encountering a truckload of nerds gathered around the Central Power Battery, holding hands and singing Kum Ba Fucking Yah.

Seriously, I can't deal with that sort of thing.

This most recent story is a step towards proper interfan relations, and I wish you luck in bringing us back to the fandom I knew and fell in love with as a punk-ass kid.

Thank you for working so hard to bring the true nature of Green Lantern fans to light, and please disregard the previous hate letter that I sent when I was afraid you'd fuck Kyle up badly. I was actually very impressed with how you handled the matter, and found that my sometimes favorite Lantern was treated well. Also, that letter isn't written in real blood anyway.

Sincerely yours,
A Rabid Kyle Rayner Fangirl

P.S.: Bring Back Katma Tui

P.P.S.: Now, motherfucker.

Sinestro Corps Special

I'm not pissed.


Yes, they did screw with Kyle.


No, it didn't piss me off. Actually, I don't think Kyle fans have nearly as much to be annoyed with as John fans do or Hal fans did.

That doesn't mean it was a miss, I can wait to see how everything plays out.


Although what's really funny? Its actually a combination of some of the stuff we guessed. (I'll admit this issue also combined those with one idea I had that I left out of the post because I couldn't make it funny, and one thing that never occurred to me but really should have.) Also, that list helps a lot because it goes to show that there is a lot worse they could have done. I should try that again next time it looks like they're screwing with a character I love. Softens the blow.

Or maybe it was that I spent two and a half extra hours at work, only to have my car's battery die and need to be replaced. I was so unbelievably happy to actually get comics that nothing could have pissed me off.

Anyway, feel free to sound off with your reactions in the comments. I want to discuss this one but I'm not sure where to start other than to say that Kyle had better get a hug when this is all over.

From Green Lantern: Mosaic #6

This one's been on my mind since the September DC Solicits came out. Can't imagine why.

30 Ways to Piss Off Kyle's Fans

This week I got caught up in the Flash and other matters, so I nearly missed my chance to discuss this quote:

Van Sciver remarked, “Kyle Rayner fans may not like us after June.”

Its June 24th, and Sinestro Corps (supposedly) comes out on the 27th, so we only have a few days to guess at what he means. True, this is assuming that we can trust him (Hey, for all we know, Hal fans are the ones getting screwed over again), but some people are taking this as a fairly big clue as to Kyle's fate. The going rumor, of course, is still that Kyle will be taken over by Parallax. I'm sure there are some people reading this very post who are taking this as the only logical option.

But Ethan Van Sciver is not necessarily referring to that. There are numerous ways to screw over that character that do not involve creating Kyllax. Come to think of it, there are numerous perfectly harmless additions one can make to the character that will royally piss off his fanbase anyway. Anyone remember when Winick retconned him to Half-Hispanic? Kylefans had a collective shitfit. Given the nature of fandom, I don't doubt that there was racism involved in some objections. However, the retconning of his father from potentially evil government spook to superspy good guy in hiding was also involved, so I wouldn't say that's a definite reason someone would object.

Personally, I was more annoyed at the diversity cheat there. You think that fucking counts, Winick? He looks white. He has an Irish name. He was raised Irish. He doesn't even KNOW the other side of the family! YOU STILL OWE US A HISPANIC CHARACTER WINICK!!!

*Ahem*

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that Johns can do to piss off Kyle fans, and we have only until Wednesday to get our theories out there before Green Lantern fans get shifted to a completely different track of mind (mainly, how to get revenge for whatever they've done to our precious Kyle). So, without further ado (and with the assistance of Kalinara), I present...

30 Ways to Piss Off Kyle Fans

1. Kyle is possessed by Parallax.

2. Kyle voluntarily hosts Parallax, figuring he can control him. He fucks this up big time.

3. Kyle loses his powers and is fired by the Guardians for it.

4. He returns as the new Star Sapphire.

5. Sinestro kills Kyle and stuffs him into Hal's refrigerator.

6. Kyle Rayner meets an alternate universe version of himself and gets involved in a relationship with her. They both die horribly at the hands of each other's enemies.

7. Kyle loses his powers and the use of his legs. He's a non-powered supporting cast member for the next ten years, then gets his powers back to become a twice a year guest star.

8. Kyle loses his powers and has to use a yellow ring. Within the next year he loses it, and discovers he has alien heritage and funky powers from that heritage.

9. Kyle gets kidnapped on the first page and taken out of the action until September.

10. Kyle's mom returns as Parallax. She becomes Ion after killing Kyle and sucking out his powers.

11. Kyle is not only 50% Irish, 50% Mexican, but he's part Kenyan, Australian, Cherokee, and Japanese. But he still looks white, so he gets panel time.

12. In their most thoughtful (sadly) attempt yet to appeal to female readers, DC brings us its newest retcon: Kyla Rayner.

13. Rather than retcon, Kyla Rayner is a plotline designed to appeal to transgendered fans.

14. Either way, she's getting married to Connor Hawke in October. There will be three special wedding issue tie-ins, and Superman jumps out of the cake again. Female readers are pissed because he's wearing all of his clothes again.

15. Kyle is de-aged to 15 and officially becomes the Kid Sidekick.

16. Kyle is ambushed by 6 of Hal's enemies. 3 of them back off, saying that Kyle's a child and not a Green Lantern, the other 3 attack with full force and kill him.

17. An announcement is made in the DC Nation column that Brad Meltzer will write a new miniseries: Kyle Rayner Gets His Ass Kicked Across the DCU.

18. Kyle sacrifices his power and his life to reignite the sun, and returns as the Spectre.

19. Kyle is out in the middle of a battle with Hal. He warns Hal to watch out, because the enemies are targetting him as the stranger one, but Hal doesn't heed his warning and a stray strike fries Kyle. In his last moments he bequeaths his powers to Hal.

20. Sinestro fakes Kyle's death to cover his capture. While Kyle is being tortured on Qward, Hal and Donna Troy start to date. This leads to a wedding in December, with three special one-shots, Superman jumping out of the cake, and Donna calls off the wedding because of a telepathic link with Kyle they'd never displayed before. Hal saves Kyle, who then goes into a coma for a few years. Upon waking from the coma, Kyle has brain damage and is unrecognizeable as a character. He dumps Donna.

21. Kyle gives up art to join the military.

22. Kyle discovers he has the ability to warp reality. After learning that the fat guy in Austin that Judd Winick wrote was merely a creation of that power and his unconcious desperate need to have a father figure, Kyle loses his mind and subtly attacks the JLA. He kills Oliver Queen (Nobody minds) and causes the Justice League to disband. Later, he remakes the world according to Hal's wishes, and when he's called on that he whispers "No more superheroes..." -- Okay, forget this one. Its just too mean.

23. It turns out that Kyle was secretly sent by his father (or some thing pretending to be his father) to kill Hal. This complicates things at the Oan water cooler.

24. Kyle is fired from the Green Lantern Corps for insubordination, but he wants to help Hal. So he takes some of Ganthet's plans and puts them into effect, starting an intergalactic war. He's captured by Amon Sur and tortured with a power drill. The entire scene is creepily sexy. He's brought to Oa for help afterwards, but Soranik lets him die for no good reason.

25. Kyle is found burned to death at the artist's retreat. An investigation proceeds, causing Hal to track down an old villain who raped Kyle but had his mind wiped in response. It turns out that this has nothing to do with the actual murder. Torah killed him for jealousy and used that flamethrower she carries around to cover her tracks.

26. Sinestro manages to steal Kyle's powers, but Hal rescues him and leaves him at his apartment while he tries to stop Sinestro's master plan. While he's gone, Carol gets possessed by Star Sapphire again. She goes to Hal's apartment to kill him, but finds Kyle instead and chops him to pieces in the kitchen.

27. Parallax possesses Kyle and forces him to fight the rest of the Corps. By the time he shakes him several lanterns are hurt, which causes great angst on the part of Kyle. He goes into seclusion into September, when he emerges to fight an alternate universe Hal who was never freed from Parallax. He's beaten to death during the battle, and doesn't manage to stop his enemy.

28. In the first few pages, Ganthet calls Kyle to Oa, takes him aside and says the words fandom will remember for decades: "Kyle, I am your father."

29. In the last few pages, Sinestro corners Kyle, and in the middle of the fight says the words fandom will remember for decades: "Kyle, I am your father."

30. In the last few pages, Sinestro corners Kyle, and in the middle of the fight says the words fandom will remember for decades: "Kyle, I am your mother. Its complicated."

Aww Hell.

Again. (Its funny, the last time was over linking too.)

Still, the comment thread there is surprisingly fun so far. They're talking about the wedding and the covers and ignoring the fight most of us got sucked into.

Edit: Okay, fun except for this one:

*blinks*
So this isn't about Dinah? Or the neverending debate about just how much of a w00bie Deathstroke is? Or who tops in the true pure love of SupaBat (Lois Lane WHO?)?

It's just...linkwank. *sigh*

TRY HARDER, COMICSDOM.

"Try harder?" You're kidding, right. We fight about that sort of shit all the time, its just that that community only ever pays attention to livejournal so they miss the really fun Comics fighting on the boards and the blogs. The really interesting stuff isn't even the linking (which Fandom_Wank only notices because it crosses over to livejournal, I bet) but when the pros fight fans. Yeesh, all that community has to do is watch Graeme or Shane's posts on Blog@Newsarama for a little while and they'd find better drama than just the link stuff. Or visit the DCMB.

They don't even have the order of favorite arguments right, do they? No Silver Age vs 90s characters at all. No Joe Quesada. No Marvel vs DC either.

Still missing the point.

Loren over at Suspension of Disbelief did an overlay test and discovered that the Power Girl cover was altered before release to give her a smaller breast size.

However, her lifeless posture, incorrect anatomy (the breasts are still anchored to her ribcage -- boobs don't work that way!) and utterly vacant expression remain.

Good god, DC, its not about the fucking cup size. Its about when your artist doesn't bother to draw the rest of her because he thought big breasts got the character across.

They don't.

Next time you kick Turner in the butt, make him fix the rest of the cover too. Or better yet, don't hire his lazy ass!

This one amuses me.

In the comments of my latest linking rant, Dan had this to say:

The internet is a public place. It certainly is. Most of us are aware of that. It is a fantastically open marketplace where ideas can battle against other ideas.

And you know what? Posting for the sole purpose of mocking another person probably is low and messed up. It might be funny. You might enjoy it. But that doesn't make it anything other than low. You are deriving humor by mocking someone else.

At this point I have to point out the rank hypocrisy of your post, however. Your point that the internet is a public place and people can say WHATEVER they want is well taken. Then, promptly, however you tell other people what they cannot say (in your words, "don't make generalizations about "Bloggers.")

Doubtless, then, you are a hypocrite.

Oh and points for reading comprehension. Go back and reread that thread you graciously aren't linking to. It is the professed "blogger" who made that generalization, not the professed "livejournaler." But perhaps you were too busy making a generalization to realize that.

You are "downright sick" of it? Downright sick? Well then I guess we should all stop right? Because you are sick. But if anyone else says they don't like being linked too (and that is what they said--fundamentally different that saying that bloggers should quit doing it), they should suck it up because you do like it? Please.

I don't expect this post to last long, because I know the internet isn't that open a space. And I know that people like to bitch at others without being bitched at themselves. But, when you delete this entry, please do me a favor and go back and reread that thread.

Sir, I'll not only not delete your comment, I'll repost it here to be fully appreciated by the audience.

I propose a "Guess what sort of foreign object is stuck up Dan's butt" contest.

Friday Night Fights Returns!

(Like I'd miss this)

(More JLA#10 Spoilers. You are not safe from them anywhere.)

Daniel has one more reason that I hate Brad Meltzer's writing and want him off the Justice League of America now.

That writer spent most of the first issue on a game of Capture the Fucking Flag, and he couldn't make time to acknowledged those three characters in the last issue.

A single fucking panel where the one character who knows (for sure) who they all are introduces them to others. "Hi, this is..." That's all. Or if he's too wobbly-brained, have a panel where the other characters ask about them. "Holy cow, is that who I think it is? Look how they've grown!" Something like that.

You can't tell me that with all the padding in this book there wasn't something that could be cut in order to do that.

Mark Waid would've had them introduced the panel after the hug.

Geoff Johns would've had them introduced the panel after the hug.

This guy doesn't bother. They are there in the art only so that when Waid starts writing he'll have them to play with.

Public Service Announcement

The Internet is largely public. If you post in a public place, and are linked and mocked in another place, then it perfectly within the rights of the linker to mock you.

Its not their right to harass you, threaten you, or send a slew of trolls to your own website, but if the matter consists solely of linking and mocking, its hardly "really low" or "messed up."

If you get linked to on When Fangirls Attack, and then linked on another blog and mocked, the linking and mocking is not "the lowest of the low." Yes, sending trolls is low. Yes, some insults are stupid. However, a lot of different opinions are linked on WFA and it is read by people from various sides of the political spectrum. Linking and mocking will occur.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of the blogosphere is people linking other people, often for mockery. And if you were linked and mocked for linking and mocking someone's interview or point of view, they're pretty much doing the same to you as you did to them and it makes you particularly annoying and silly to the neutral onlooker. That's the Blogosphere. Its the wild.

Defend yourself, by all means. Ignore them, by all means. Express your personal opinions about their parentage, by all means. If you get trolled, lock down you blog if you must. If you get threatened, Complain if their mocking specifically called for people to troll you. Argue back, retreat, whatever you must. But don't make generalizations about "Bloggers" (Especially if you are one, and if you have a livejournal, you are one too. Deal with it) and don't make bitter statements about them linking public posts.

I say this without naming names or linking what brought this about because I've seen more than enough complaints over people being linked and I'm downright sick of people posting in a public place and then complaining they were linked in an unfavorable manner. (Or, in the case of one fucking idiot, a completely neutral manner.) You think I haven't been called crazy, or creepy, or stupid, or had a post fisked?

Guess what, that's their right to do (even if they are wrong) and I do the same damned thing on this blog all the time. If I'm not being threatened or trolled, who the fuck cares if they make fun of me in their own private part of the internet? I have mine to mock them from.

Lock it up if you don't want anyone who disagrees reading.

Finished Flash and JLA

I am purposefully spoiling both for my sister here.

The writing was dreadful, and I can see where a lot of people will be pissed but I'm not. From my POV, they just fixed something that was wrong. I'm extremely satisfied with the ending and will enjoy seeing what Waid and McDuffie do with the results.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to do my "I Told You So" dance.

My sister will know what I mean.

Big surprise there.

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from. And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi. Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics... Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Thoughts?

Okay, I was going to take a break from Comic Book Issues Blogging and just fanblog Green Lantern until the Sinestro Corps special comes out next week but I wanted to see what other people thought of this guy's comment policy:

Allow me to show you something, Angryrantgirl.

You have just claimed that I am not allowed to hold an opinion on something. For, and let's not blow smoke up my bum here, the simple reason that it doesn't match yours.

I have deleted your comment, and I have locked this post to keep you from commenting again.

This is actual oppression. I'm not allowing you to voice an opinion. This is a real reason to get angry, not the thong of an imaginary person.

Now, go get some sort of perspective in your life.

My, my...

Looks like Pedro was on the right track. Check out what Kalinara saw when she checked the official website solicit for Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents Parallax:

Written by Ron Marz; Art by Adriana Melo and Marlo Alquiza; Cover by Mike McKone and Andy Lanning

Get ready for a new series of specials focusing on members of the Sinestro Corps and tying into the "Sinestro Corps War" crossover!

DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US

On Sale September 19, 2007

That's it. The solicit they gave everyone else is not up there. The plot thickens and I only have one more week to guess what in the Sinestro Corps special is supposed to piss Kyle fans off so badly. I really should know better than to believe press releases for Green Lantern storylines. (And interviews, for that matter).

Still, half the fun of serialized fiction for me is playing detective and seeing how much of the story I can figure out in advance. (Yes, I am the type of fan they are thinking of when they make sure to drop these lies.) If I enjoy the comics more than what I've come up with myself, I consider it a success.

And now, to daydream.

Remember this guy?

“Now Hal Jordan is the ultimate Green Lantern,” Reynolds admits, “but my favorite is John Stewart. I believe that it really is about time for a black, traditional, All-American hero and Stewart represents that.

“He’s gone through everything from being paralyzed to being healed, to being placed in charge of it all, to patrolling 2814. He’s gone through everything. But when you look at his back story as far as where he comes from., how he grew up, that he’s an architect by trade, I think it’s very interesting to think that someone like him was given the ability to just about anything they want with their mind. I also think it’s interesting that he has such a creative mind to begin with. I love the whole idea that the combination of will and determination being the link to his abilities. So I think he would be a really interesting character to bring to the screen, and I’m working hard to make it happen.”

You read that right. Reynolds is currently hard at work on obtaining the rights to DC’s Green Lantern franchise. Ambitious, even for an actor who’s only truly starting to get his first true taste of national exposure. Then again, we’re also talking about one huge comic book fan here; one who is actually working for a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Stranger things have happened in Hollywood, and some have even worked out.

Kevin Melrose found a followup on that one.

It’s funny you mention that. I just finished the script; it is done. I wrote it myself. A motion picture – full-length, full action – and now we are beginning the pitch process. I’m very optimistic. I’ll leave it at that. I think that the people that I have in my camp at Warner Bros. are interested in cultivating some of my creativity.

This is my first time writing a script by myself, from start to finish, and I got the thumbs up from them. As a matter of fact, after they read it they told me that it was, in fact, “ready.” It’s something that I really want to do. I hate to put numbers on things…but I’d like to see a 2010 [release]. It’s three films, and the first one is titled “Green Lantern: Birth of a Hero.”…This would be no small task. This will be a huge undertaking. It’ll be a huge undertaking just to keep myself attached to [be the] star, if the script gets green-lit. But my whole life has been obstacles that a lot of people told me were insurmountable.

Oh, and if anyone here makes the same continuity error as this Blog@ Commenter, they are getting laughed off the blog.

From the Department of Twisted Fan Ideas

Okay, since Kalinara brought it up and bugged me to post it, here's the scenario I laid out for her when I heard the setup for Countdown Presents The Search For Ray Palmer. When I heard the three characters chosen were Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, and Donna Troy, this is the scene that popped into my head:

Donna: (Slips into room. Both she and Kyle are dressed in WWII-style German military uniforms to fit in on this strange world.) Jason just tried to kill Hitler

Kyle: Wait, wait.. When we found out this was Naziworld, didn't we BOTH turn to Jason and specifically tell him not to do that? Not to do that exact thing he just did?

Donna: Well, we did tell him to act naturally and we both knew going into this that Jason was... fairly... psychotic.

Kyle: We also told him to keep a low profile. It was YOUR idea to bring him and now he's gone and done something that will get everybody on this entire planet trying to kill us!

Donna: Aren't you a Green Lantern? Shouldn't you should be able to handle a few Nazis?

Kyle: Hey, you're an Amazon, why don't you just beat EVERYONE on Naziworld up! INCLUDING THEIR SUPERMAN! And their Green Lantern. Let's just get the attention of everything in this universe and beat them up because there can't POSSIBLY be anything here that can stop us from finding Palmer even though there's a whole bunch of things in every other universe that can and want to destroy us before we catch up to him!

Donna: Kyle, stop yelling at me. You always do this. You always turn into a complete ass whenever the slightest thing goes wrong.

Kyle: I'm the complete ass? I'M NOT THE ONE WHO TRIED TO KILL HITLER!

(Kali found it funny. I'm sure I'll get interesting search results for this one.)

The point is that Kalinara and I are enjoying this idea way too much, and will probably be reading come September. Ron Marz is writing so the odds are pretty good these three will drive each other crazy in a mindlessly entertaining way.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled obsessing over Green Lantern.

Flash Fact: Series Titles

Hey, everyone complaining about the title of September's All-Flash #1, there's a reason they did that.

Its historical. In the 40s, Jay Garrick shared the spotlight with several other characters in Flash Comics. He'd get a story, and then a few other characters would each issue. When he got popular enough, they gave him his own quarterly special called All-Flash Quarterly because it was all Flash stories.

Still a dumb name, yes, but its historically dumb and that's what DC Comics specializes in.

Too Little, Too Late

Nice try, Marvel, but one lurid Namor cover does not "equal objectification" make.

Previews and Rumors

(Via) Newsarama has a whopping nine early solicits up before the full ones go live, and this one in particular is quite interesting to me:

TALES OF THE SINESTRO CORPS PRESENTS PARALLAX #1
Written by Ron Marz
Art by Adriana Melo & Marlo Alquiza
Cover by Mike McKone & Andy Lanning
Get ready for a new series of specials focusing on members of the Sinestro Corps and tying into the “Sinestro Corps War” crossover! In this initial installment, the writer who introduced Kyle, Ron Marz, dissects what led Kyle to his downfall and explains the Parallax entity.
On sale September 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US"

Let's not panic. Downfall is vague, and the name "Kyle" may be a typo (or even a purposeful typo, I wouldn't put it past them) and they meant to say "Hal." That would explain the silhouette on the cover looking like Hal's old armor.

Still, the idea I've heard floating around is that Kyle will get possessed. I find it extremely unlikely, Parallax is Kyle's major villain so its very possible he can trip Kyle up without possessing him. Honestly, though, if that happens I don't think it'll bother me so long as its not too dragged out and not just a rehash of what went on with Hal.

At least with Kyle they'd have established its a possession at the start, and I'm sure it wouldn't be a long-term issue because they have him invested in the metaplot already. Though, that would be kind of interesting. Fighting Parallax influence, dealing with Donna and Jason, running from the Monitors and trying to fix the universe.

It could really suck, but even in that case I'd buy it for trainwreck value and to follow one of my favorite characters and maybe get to see Kyle decked out in the Parallax armor. I think he would look awesome with in that costume.

On the other solicits, I am looking forward to Kyle's role in the metaplot. Marz is writing it, and I generally find him to be an amiable writer (you'll hear about it here if he irritates me too much). There is always the chance he will fuck up the female characters, but its not a certainty. I'm not a Ray Palmer fan, but I'll be getting The Search for Ray Palmer.

Infinity Inc and Suicide Squad are not grabbing me like I thought they might.

And I view the Wonder Woman Annual with bitterness, because instead of giving us a real annual they are giving us the issue that should have been issue #5.

Edit: This guy has an interesting point:

Did you notice on the cover for the Search for Ray Palmer, he has a power ring and his freaking crab mask? I think they're putting him back in his old costume. I can't stand that old costume!

Not the costume griping, mind you, because Kyle's first costume is actually looking nice next to the last two (Though the haircut on this cover sketch is dreadful. Does Kyle seem like a crewcut type to anyone who's ever read him? Honestly. I'm going to pretend he and Jason swapped clothing for some inexplicable reason there, because Jason is drawn like Kyle should be), but on the old costume in the other preview. Kyle's downfall = the foolish loss of his powers? Parallax might trick him into giving them up or wasting them.

Oh, I hope they do that. I hope they depower Kyle and make him a regular Lantern again. What he's got is unwieldy.

Happy Father's Day!